Arts for All

Winnipeg Cultural Capital of Canada

Dominique Rey

Presenting a Speed Bump: A Slow-City and Slow-Life Workshop - Friday, November 5 at 3:00 pm

Like many contemporary artists, Dominique Rey works in a number of media. She is a painter, photographer, video artist, and performance artist.

"Her practice is to immerse herself in the world she is using as material, whether that means living with exotic dancers in South Carolina for her photographic series called Selling Venus/Vénus au miroir (her Photo Essay from this body of work published in Border Crossings won a Gold Medal at the National Magazine Awards in 2005); or spending months talking with an order of French nuns before creating a body of work of their lives together.” (Robert Enright)

She has shown her work across North America with solo exhibitions at Plug In ICA, Clark Gallery, Michael Gibson Gallery, Alternator Gallery, Gallery TPW, Truck Gallery, Gallery One One One and La Maison des artistes. She has been awarded grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council, the Winnipeg Arts Council, the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, and the Ricard Foundation. Her work has been reviewed in the Globe & Mail, Frieze, Canadian Art, Border Crossings, and the Winnipeg Free Press.

Dominique completed an MFA in photography at Bard College in 2007 and is currently working on an MFA in New Media at the Transart Institute in Berlin. Her exhibition Pilgrims will be shown for the first time at Gallery 1C03 at the University of Winnipeg this fall. In addition to her visual work, Dominique Rey’s activities include performing with the Abzurbs, teaching, doing residencies, and curating. Rey was a director on the board of Ace Art Inc. from 2002-2009.

Speed Bump – A Slow-City and Slow-Life Workshop

Sick with hurry, sick with time, our culture’s addiction to speed is engraved at the deepest level of the mind. The maxim that speed equals power has many under its adrenaline-induced spell. The tentacles of this vast machinery connect to all societal spheres, creating a desire and craving for acceleration everywhere. Is it possible to resist this tidal wave? Radical slowness may be one possible counterpoint in a world where the mechanisms of innovation and power are running out of control.

Slowness is counter our notions of the city as thriving, alive, and fast paced. Before asking where and how slowness can enter our lives, we must first answer why. If productivity and success are the predominant mottos of our time, why should we want to slow down? The reality is that the bombardment and cacophony of the world around us as well as the world within is depleting and unsustainable, and greatly jeopardizes our quality of life. Despite the challenge of switching off this mindset, more and more people are seeing the value and necessity of giving oneself the gift of slowness. The use, purpose and relevance of slowness is to give back to the present moment its’ true worth, allowing for a more reflective way of being. The slow movement has become a worldwide phenomenon that is transforming cities everywhere, from food production to food consumption, to health, sex, work, leisure, education, transportation, childrearing, urban planning, and the environment.

As a forum for discussion and experimentation, this workshop will provide participants tools and tactics for creating slow cities and slow lives. Taking the shape of a slowness think tank, our aim will be to find pathways to finding slowness in the everyday, allowing it to infiltrate and transform our world, starting with the symposium! Throughout the four days of “My City is Still Breathing” we will perform random and organized acts of slowness. A “Slow” List will be gleaned from our experiments and interventions at the conclusion of the symposium. This invitation to slowness will be a catalyst for unexpected and practical applications of slowness in people’s everyday lives.